NTSB: Broken Arrow Pilot Partly To Blame For Crash That Killed Him And His Mother

NewsOn6.com

COLLINSVILLE, Oklahoma --  The National Transportation Safety Board has released its final report on a plane crash that killed a Broken Arrow pilot and his mother last May.

Kevin Scott Covell, 49, and his mother, 84-year-old Charlotte Covell, died on Saturday, May 29, 2010, when their small plane went down near Airman Acres, a private airstrip in Collinsville.

According to the NTSB's Probable Cause report, the cause of the crash was "a loss of engine power shortly after takeoff for undetermined reasons.  Contributing to the accident was the pilot's decision to make a 180-degree turn at low level."

Read the NTSB's Probable Cause report.

The NTSB report found that the engine lost power shortly after takeoff when the plane was about 150 feet off the ground.  The pilot decided to make a 180-degree turn back to the airstrip to make a forced landing.

During the turn, the airplane nosed over into the ground.

The plane then burned, which destroyed the cockpit and damaged the engine area.  That made it impossible for the NTSB to determine why the engine lost power.

2/11/2011:  Related Story:  Investigators Can't Pinpoint Cause Of Deadly Collinsville Plane Crash

5/29/2010:  Related Story:  OHP Confirms Two Fatalities In Collinsville Plane Crash

The aircraft was a single engine Vans RV-4 which Covell had built himself from a kit, according to the NTSB.

The airplane was completed by the pilot on January 23, 1999.  The NTSB says it held an experimental airworthiness certificate in the amateur built category and had accrued about 330 total aircraft hours.  The NTSB says the most recent annual (condition) inspection was completed July 17, 2009.

According to Covell's logbook, which the NTSB released along with its final report, Covell often flew with his mother as a passenger.  He also frequently performed aerobatics with her aboard. 

See witness statement and photographs